Police arrest ‘mastermind’ behind UP board English question paper leak

Lucknow: Ballia Police on Sunday arrested the man who allegedly leaked the Uttar Pradesh state board’s Class 12 English question paper.

The arrested accused Nirbhay Narayan Singh is the manager of a private college, said the Police. The Uttar Pradesh government conducted the state board English exam for class 12 on March 30 across 75 districts of the state.

Following the leak of the question paper to be held in the second shift, the government cancelled the exam in 24 districts of the state, including the Ballia district.

The police informed that the accused Nirbhay Narayan Singh is the manager of Maharani Devi Smarak Inter College.

He allegedly got the question paper printed outside and later got it solved by two English teachers. Singh later sold the copies of the solved question paper for Rs 25,000 to Rs 30,000 per student.

Singh and another accused Rajeev Prajapati also sent scanned copies of the question paper to other people on social media. Police also arrested Prajapati on Sunday.

The police confirmed the recovery of solved copies and money extorted from the students. The accused received the money in a bank account through Paytm transactions. Ballia Police, so far have arrested four managers, three principals, ten teachers and five coaching centre teachers and three clerks in the case.

The police registered the case under relevant sections of the Indian Penal Code. With the eight new arrests in the previous week, Ballia police have arrested a total of 46 people so far.

The UP government on Twitter informed that the exam was conducted in the other 51 districts on the same day and the cancelled exam in 24 districts will be conducted on April 13.